Strand F - Just a Human (2nd Draft)

Strand F - Just a Human

"Wow, your Japanese is amazing!"

It was definitely no less than one hundred times that Piers had heard that line, or it’s variation, being said to him. Yes, he could speak japanese almost like a native. Yes, he had a blonde hair and a pair of blue eyes. No, that did not mean he wasn't able to speak Japanese. He had been part of the US army, and he was stationed in Japan for more than ten years already. Yet, even with those thoughts running through his head, Piers resisted rolling his eyes and simply thanked the stranger who he had decided to ask about directions. After all, he couldn't really blame them. He was a foreigner asking for directions, he had more than enough "clueless tourist" stereotype written on him.

The direction he was asking for was Takarazuka Theatre. It was the main stage for Takarazuka Revue; the all-female musical theatre troupe of Japan. Piers remembered watching it once about a year after he got married. His wife, Yuno, used to be the lead of the cast too. "Top star" was what her role was, but she had already retired for a good amount of time when Piers first met her. One of Yuno’s protegé was going to have her last performance that day, and so she received a free ticket to go watch it. The invitation to the farewell party was sent to her as well. Although stage play wasn’t really his thing, his wife asked him to go watch it in her stead. Someone had to look after his daughter after all, and bringing a 3 months toddler to a stage play was out of the question. As much as he wanted to spend time with his baby little girl, he knew he would be at a loss when he had to change her diaper.

Also, he couldn't really find the heart to say no to his lovely wife. Thus, Piers requested a 3 day military leave, and he planned a family vacation to Osaka with Yuno.

With the information he gained from asking a few random strangers, Piers eventually found his way to the theatre. He received his ticket from the booth after he gave them the name of his wife, went into the stage hall, sat down in the seat that his ticket was assigned to, and waited. Most of the audience consisted of middle aged lady, and occasionally, their husband. He was the only foreigner there, as expected.

The play eventually started. It was supposedly based on the tale of Oda Nobunaga, but Piers questioned how much of the real history were left intact in this play. After all, Takarazuka troupe aren’t known for being faithful with their adaptation, but rather, known for how cool and handsome their top star was. One of the performer, clad in a crimson samurai costume, immediately spotted Piers. They maintained eye contact for a few seconds, and Piers then waved lightly at her. Yuno’s protegé seemed to be giving it all for her last performance. What was her name again?

Piers yawned slightly. Just as he yawned however, a large tremor shook the theatre, almost causing Piers to bite his tongue. Some of the performer were knocked off their feet as well, and the back-up orchestra had to stop playing abruptly. No one seemed to be seriously injured, fortunately. Piers’s phone, as well as everyone else’s, gave out a sudden alarm about earthquake the instant it hits. Although the earthquake took everyone by surprise, it was not too worrying. Japanese had always been good at dealing with earthquake, they even had an emergency system that just went off in everyone’s phone, even if they had put it on silent mode for the performance. It even informed them the magnitude, and where the earthquake's epicenter was.

And that was when Piers got very worried. His phone was being flooded by alarms informing him of earthquakes going off all over Japan in rapid succession. They were low in magnitude, averaging at 5 richter, yet they were unnaturally numerous. The announcement system told everyone to be calm, and that the performance will have to be canceled due to an emergency. Everyone was told to lay low near their seats, and wait for further instructions.

The earthquake quickly calmed down, but it never really stopped. Piers could feel rhythmic tremor shaking the hall.

[i]Thump[/i]

[i]Thump[/i]

[i]Thump[/i]

The lady sitting next to him started to cry, and piers gave her a reassuring grasp. That seemed to have calmed her down somewhat.

[i]Thump[/i]

[i]Thump[/i]

[i]Thump[/i]

The alarm on everyone's phone subsided. Yet, a rhythmic tremor lingered. It seems to become even stronger with each wave, in fact.

[i]Thump[/i]

[i]THUMP[/i]

[i][b]THUMP[/i][/b]

Silence.

Whispers and murmurs started to rise amongst the theatre. Everyone seemed to be relieved that the eartquake had finally stopped. "That was a really big earthquake wasn’t it." Said Piers to the lady that he had calmed down. The lady nodded, and said, "y-yeah, it wa-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a very loud noise pierced through the theatre. Perhaps literally. Something protruded from the ceiling of the theatre. Something black and writhing. Something that seemed to resemble a sharp set of claws. The appendages dragged itself across the ceiling, ripping off the top of the theatre revealing a large, towering mass of [i]something[/i].

Panic immediately sets in and all of the audiences gunned for the exit. This was usually where Piers would start keeping civilians in line, but what stood before him froze him completely. He had never seen something like that before. It seemed to have came straight off a b-grade disaster movie, or a kaiju movie, but with all of the budget put into making it as scary as possible. It's black body seemed to be ever shifting; confusing his mind of what the texture of the giant monster was. His mind tried to fill in the blank, and looking at the beast felt like a hallucination, a nightmare made real.

Piers shook off his thoughts from trying to comprehend the monster, and instead tried to find a way to not die. God knows how many people had already been trampled by the fleeing crowd to death, but he could see the monster raised one of it’s limb up. It seemed to be aiming straight at the main exit door, right where everyone was crowding at. Although Piers shouted "Get away!" at the top of his lungs, his voice was lost within the panicking crowd. All he could do was grab the middle-aged lady who was next to him, stopped her from joining the crowd, and jumped away as far as possible from where the limb would crashed into. Piers gritted his teeth as a thunderous shockwave shook the room.

-

Piers found himself lying in a rubble, dazed and disoriented. He could feel a few splints and light cuts on his skin, but he wasn't worried about that; the smell of iron, stench of blood, was the first thing he really noticed. He really hoped it wasn't his own.

With some minor effort, Piers pulled himself out of the rubble, and the scene before him was the last thing he needed to snap him from denial. Piers was ready to write this all off as a bad dream, and this would a great time to be woken up groggily by the sound of his daughter crying because she soiled her diapers or something, but that was not the case. The monster had destroyed the entire floor in that one swing, and all the people who were crowding the main exit were crushed in the process. What that was left was a pile of mangled flesh mixed with the rubbles and in front of him. Some of them were clutching their loved one, eyes wide in a deathly fear. Their frozen expression would ensure that Piers will never forget what he just saw.

But he at least saved one person.

"Ma'am! Are you alright?" Piers said to the lady, who still remained unconscious under some light debris nearby. He rushed to her, lifting out some debris off of her. No visible injuries. Piers tried to shake her awake, but she did not respond. He then checked for her pulse. She was still alive, at least.

Piers then felt the tremor again, but it was not as strong this time. It reminded him of the monster, which made him looked up from where he was. The monster was causing tremor with every step it took, but since it was far away from the theatre, or what was left of it, the tremor was negligible to his balance. Piers felt that he was incredibly lucky to have survived, perhaps being unconscious within a rubble really does have it's merit after all. Even better, the monster was walking in the direction away from the hotel that he and his wife were staying. Yuno will be safe from that kaiju at least.

Which then reminded Piers that he should contact Yuno immediately. He quickly checked his phone, and he was overwhelmed with guilt. Ten missed call all from Yuno. She must have been worried sick.

Piers slid his finger on the touch screen of his phone. His finger twitched as he tried to direct his finger. He finally came to realized how much of an adrenaline rush he was in; chilling sensation on his face, his vision bright and somewhat tunneled, and how he felt that he couldn't breath constantly. No matter, they needed to know that he was alive and well.

He pressed call.

[i]Beep[\i]

...

[i]Beep[\i]

...

[i]Beep[\i]

...

[i]Bee-[\i]

"Piers! Piers!? Is that you?"

"I'm fine. Are you two alright?"

"I- I'm so- Yes! We are safe! Both of us!"

Yuno was crying. Guilt dug deeper into Piers.

"I'm so sorry I missed your call... Where are you right now?"

"We- we were told to gather at the meeting zone in the hotel. We are all in the lobby right now, but no one was willing to go outside."

"Try to stay indoor. Find a place to hide if anything happens. Everything's gonna be alright, Yuno. I will be there ok?"

At that moment, he heard gunshots. It wasn't from his phone.

Piers looked back at the giant monster again, it was even further away. Who was shooting? And what was being shot at?

"Yuno, I will be there alright? Everything will be fine."

The response was a muffled sobbing.

"Hey, I will be right there in no time, ok? I'm a soldier. I will protect you. I won't let it harm neither of you."

"I- I understand."

"Please, do one thing for me. Please keep Haruka safe."

[i]"I will."[\i]

"I love you, my dear."

Yuno's last response before Piers hung up was one of certainty. She stopped crying immediately then. All the sign of fear and anxiety she exhibit at the beginning of the phone call subsided the moment he mentioned their daughter, Haruka, by name. All that he could hear from Yuno, was the voice of certainty.

Piers knew all along she was the one he had to fall in love with.